for msnbc, i'm chris matthews, thank you for watching. and now the president's turn. democrats descend on charlotte to officially nominate president obama and vice president biden for a second term. but is their base as fired up as they were four years ago? democrats love that mitt romney had to spend his convention trying to improve his likability. well, this week, running mate paul ryan and slew of big named republican, many right here in charlotte, will try to put some dents in the president's own likability. and with two moss to go until election day, are republicans trying to win this election, with the same, are you

better off question? that ronald reagan rallied them around 32 years ago. more importantly, do democrats have a strong answer ready? by the way, the answer's changed in the last 24 hours. happy labor day. good morning from charlotte. no, your alarm clock didn't go off early. we're an hour earlier. it's monday, september 3, 2012. it's labor day. kicking awe, a few of you may it down here. that's nice. a giant lineup in the next two hours. jim clyburn, brian sweitzer, kay hagan among others will be here and in a few minutes we'll hear from the obama campaign stephanie cutter and aren'ty chairman ryan. first to my first reads of the morning, two hours of them today. the president lays out his best case for a second term here on thursday night. while mitt romney's task in tampa was to get voters to get to know him and like him, the president must persuade the country to have faith in him.

despite an unemployment rate that remains stubbornly above 8%, he hoped to cure, campaigning on sunday, he said the republican convention was like a time warp blasting romney is out of touch. >> it was a rerun. it could have been on nick at night. we've seen it before. you might as well have watched it on a black and white tv with some rabbit ears. those ideas don't work. they didn't work then. they won't work now. >> and the president previewed the themes democrats will focus on this week in charlotte. >> thursday night i'm going to offer you what i believe is a better passport. a path that will grow this economy and create more jobs and strengthening the middle class. and the good news is, you get to choose the path we take. >> the president's in the middle of a swing state tour leading up to the convention.

he's barnstorms through iowa, virginia, colorado. over the last week, he travels to ohio today and returns to virginia tomorrow before coming to north carolina. also a new ad out this morning called heavy load airing in six battleground states. the obama campaign attacks romney's tax plan and makes the middle class appeal. we'll hear from democrats all week. >> the middle class is carrying a heavy load in america, but mitt romney doesn't see it. romney hits the middle class harder and hits millionaires with a bigger break. is that the way forward for america? >> even as the president tries to cast this campaign as a choice between two competing igs visions for america, where it comes to the question whether americans are better off than they were four years ago, the obama campaign remains a little on the defensive, or at least they did sunday. take a listen. >> -- we were this close to a great depression because the leadership of this president, we stayed that off, we're in the beginning of recovery. >> are we where we need to be, no? >> can you honestly say people

are better off today than four years ago? >> no. but that's not the question of this election. >> people want to know about the first term? simple. general motors is alive and well and osama bin laden is not. >> well, the sunday show prep created what? a lot of hedging, and that produced 12 hours of bad headlines. so the obama campaign clearly made an overnight strategic decision to answer the question differently this morning. >> are we better off today than we were four years ago when president obama was elected? >> absolutely. >> by any measure, the country has moved forward over the last four years. >> stephanie cut letter join us on the show moments from now. governor mali did a similar alface this north saying "we are clearly better off as a country because we're creating jobs rather than losing them." the obama campaign, of course, hopes to use the convention this week to move beyond this, are you better off question? and instead focus on, will you be better off?

it's a point the president has been making or trying to make ever since he kicked off his re-election campaign four months ago. >> the real question, the question that will actually make a difference in your life, in the lives of your children, is not just about how we're doing today. but how we'll be doing tomorrow. >> meanwhile, over the weekend the romney campaign noticeably pivoted back to the argument that the election should simply be a referendum on the president's economic record. >> the critical issue facing american voters is the economy. >> 23 million people are out of work or stopped looking for work or under employed. let me tell you, if you have a coach that's a 0-23 million, you say it's time to get a new coach. >> for the first time, romney actually singled out republicans for criticisms specifically congressional republicans for running up deficits during the bush years.

>> we had to lead, we let people down. we need to make sure we don't let them down this time. i will cut the deficit and get us on track to a balanced budget. >> finally this week, republicans will be able to do something democrats were not able to do last week, and that is to stage a full-fledged counterconvention, if you will. as many as 50 republicans including the rnc chairman previous, and nicking haley and virginia governor all here in charlotte to "bracket the convention." democrats are going to do the same thing but had to scale back their counterconvention due to isaac and the threat to the gulf, which, of course, forced vice president biden to cancel his trip to florida. the gop pub lysle effort will focus on this, are you better off than you were four years ago? question, the web video using the president's words in 2008 against him. the rnc is ruolling out a new website called obama isn't working dotcom.

and mitt romney lays low. a debate playing the president. paul rhiyan takes the question, are you bet of you off to greenville, and 50 miles from charlotte, a lot of media from there using the north carolina byline. republicans aren't taking this week off. preparing for an aggressive rapid response over the next five days call it counterprogramming, starting today. where do we find my colleague ron mott? in greenville, north carolina with the republican vice presidential nominee. mr. ryan. so, ron, he's going to campaign there and overnight there's, and do a lot of media from there over the next 24 hours. is that right? >> reporter: that's right, chuck. and a lot of buzz, and the buzz just went off with the lights -- [ inaudible ] i'm -- >> we have a little bit of a technical issue there. we'll see if we can get it back up. no. it's live television.

it's remotes everywhere. it's our first day. cut us some slack. just getting started on our special two-hour edition of "the daily rundown." um canning up, stephanie cutter right here. back to ron mott and get that squared away. of course, you need the schedules. the president's schedule, mitt romney, of course, the president has an event in the ohio. also take time out to go to louisiana to tour the damage that isaac caused. you're watching "the daily rundown" a two-hour special on msnbc. we'll be right back. capella university understands businesses are trying to come back from rough economic times. employees are being forced to do more with less. and the need for capable leaders is greater than ever. when you see these problems do you take a step back,

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one of the democrats' main challenges over the next week, convince voters not to look backwards but embrace the president's plans are going forward, but a new rnc ad urges voters to measure the president against his own promises trying to use his own words against him. here's a bit of it. >> these are the steps that we must take. >> there are plenty of steps we can take. >> right now. >> right now. >> to start getting our economy back on track. >> to help create jobs and grow this economy. >> stephanie cutter, the president's deputy campaign manager and she joins me now. stephanie, good morning. >> good morning. >> charlotte, right. >> yes. >> our headquarters here. different day, different city. let me start with what appears to my eye as a changed answer. a slew, every sunday talk show asked the, are you better off now than four years ago? and there seems to be nots even

a's yes but yesterday and this morning you were definitive on the "today" show saying, absolutely. why the -- why the apparent shift or the apparent change in answer? >> well, there wasn't a change in answer. let's just take a look at the facts. four years ago this was the state of the country. six months before the president was elected we lost3.5 million job, the auto industry on the verge of bankruptcy. about to bail out our first bank four years ago right now. you know, incomes and wages have been declining for a decade. now let's look at where we are today. 4.5 million appreciate sector jobs have been created. retirement accounts are 35% above where they were in 2008. the auto industry, thriving. gm number one in the world. let me just finish -- >> okay. >> but by any measurement, the country moved forward from where we were, from what we inherited four years ago, when the president took office, but we're not there's yet. that's the point. the president makes it clear on the campaign trail every single day. there's so much more we need to

do and that's what we'll talk about this week. where we've been, what we've done and where we need to go. >> not to guess bogged down in talking points but it seems as if there was -- you guys have been very concerned about that question. right? how does it play with voters? you don't want it to be a simplistic question because you're concerned that, you know, on the face of it, voters don't feel like thing, better. you can use metrics all you want, but do voters feel like they're better off? is that understandable? >> i think if you have health care today and know that your insurance company can no longer drop you when you get sick, you can put your kid on your plan, things are better. take the college tax credit to help send your kid to college, you know things are better. driving a gm or chrysler or ford, you know, we just -- fuel efficiency standards. >> but what if -- >> there's more to do, absolutely. the president has a bill sitting in front of congress. you and i talk about this all the time. a million jobs could be created

right now if congress would act. here's the message. we've come a long way since the president was elected to turn this economy around. we've made progress but we're not there yet. we have not done enough to ensure that any american looking for a job can get one. in are there are things we can do'sthe president laid out a plan to help americans get to work. a bill before congress that could do it right now. that's what this week is about. where we've been. the tough decisions the president made to do something about it and where we want to take this country forward. >> how did the republicans do well last week? we hope we do that as well as the -- >> well -- it was a nice set. the convention hall. >> you don't think they accomplished any goals? >> they convention, not only a sense who mitt romney was. i'll give him credit. you know, talking about mitt romney as a family man, and his background was incredibly moving and personal. it gave a sense to the american people who mitt romney was, but what they didn't do is speak

honestly how to deal with america's problems. speak honestly where they want to take the country. lay out one tangible idea what they would do to improve the kurchlt thursday night, it's not supposed to be a state of the union night speech, but thursday night, it is going to be clear of what the president's second term agenda is? will it be clear to american what's that is? >> i think by the end of this week, the end of the president's speech, and all of the different people speaking this week it will be clear, the road map forward, where the president wants to take this country, to build and economy, meant to last, with a strong middle class at its core. in will see that road map know where the president wants to take them, have a sense of what the second term would be about. >> a negative convention on romney in many ways? are you spending time on the podium with that? >> not like the republican convention. personal attacks and, you know -- dishonest attacks throughout the week. we're actually going to talk about our candidate. we're going to talk about the tough decisions that the president has made.

whether it's rescuing the auto industry, or what we've done to improve our national security, bin laden. break the back of al qaeda, and we're going to lay out the choice forward. again, this san election. elections are about choices. it will be a choice between the president's vision on the economy and mitt romney's vision. >> quickly, neither you nor i are meteorologists. there's clearly rain in the forecast. bank of america is not a domed football stadium. it's an outdoor facility. where would you make that call, whether the president will speak outside or not? >> we're still hopeful we can speak in the stadium. we've got tens of thousands of people from all over north carolina and the country traveling here for that. with enormous enthusiasm for it. but we always knew this could be part of the plan. we'll make a call sometime in the near future about whether to move it indoors. >> and if it was moved indoor, just right at the times warner center? >> yes. >> stephanie cutter, see you a

lot this week. nice to see you. up next -- stephanie was the party crasher last week in tampa. this week a party crasher here as republicans get ready to kick off their counterconvention. first, today's trivia question. a couple today. buffalo, new york, burlington, vermont, cincinnati, ohio and helen nah, montana, a few of the places in the u.s. nicknamed the queen city. what is the only queen city, though, in the united states actually named for a queen? the answer, @chucktodd, "daily rundown." we'll be right back. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify.

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as we told you, republicans are preparing a counter convention of sorts here in charlotte, an aggressive rapid response operation over the next week. we're going to go back to nbc's

ron mott in greenville, north carolina, with republican vice presidential hopeful paul ryan. the weather sort of kicked us off the satellite, god bless the phones. ron, walk me through the paul ryan plan today. >> reporter: yeah, chuck, the weather, took us out of the sky for a second. paul ryan speaking here at the university. a little past 1:00 eastern time this afternoon, and it's a question that he's going to ask that republicans are going to be asking all week, all the political junkies following the race closely, get ready for the question. the question is, are you better off today than you were four years ago? they're making the case the romney/ryan campaign that clearly americans are not. millions of families are struggling to find work and find jobs that are paying well fluff for them to make ends meet, and then maybe progress up the ladder, if you will. so today he's going to speak here. they really want to try to compete here in north carolina and interestingly are going out west into solid democratic territory, oregon and washington

state. paul ryan that is, later in the week. a 50-state strategy. they don't want to concede anything and going around the country with that question. whether people are better today than four years ago and they think they like the answer that people are giving them. >> traveling with paul ryan today, ron mott. about 200 miles away. see if can get you closer. thank you, sir. >> reporter: thank you. mitt romney is focused on making his case against barack obama. but hasn't put much flesh on the bones of the points made over the weekend. >> a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices. the interesting thing was, nobody ever bothered to tell us what they were. and when governor romney finally had a chance to reveal the secret sauce, he did not offer a single new idea. >> reince priebus, chairman of

the rnc heading up the response at the democratic convention this week. you're not getting pushed off by weather. democrats didn't have a chance to dos it to your convention. you brought with me your top secret. >> right. >> obama agenda. >> right. the obama agenda. there's nothing in it. >> the president accused mitt romney of the same thing. it does seem as if everybody's trying to keep details to a minimum here. is that a fair critique? >> you know, i don't think it is fair. i think, number one, the president has to account for what he did or didn't do as president of the united states. i mean, so he promised to carpet the world. he promised to cut the deficit in half. he promised to bring unemployment under 8% and the facts of the matter is he didn't. you know, the nice thing about where we're at in this election is that if this election in november, if it only comes down to facts, as far as where we are on jobs, the economy, the debt. if that's what this election is about, we win. there's kind of a premise i

don't really buy, that mitt romney hasn't put plans on the take. if you have a plan to take gdp spending from 20 cents of every dollar made in america a plan to do it across the board, personal income tax cut of 20%, business tax cut from 35% down to 25%. want to talk about the epa and regulations, opening up drilling, coal, everything underneither the ground. these are the things i think are very specific that mitt romney talks about every day. >> but you just gave me more specifics than mitt romney did in his speech. i want to read what the "wall street journal" editorial page this morning says about romney the speech on thursday. by failing to explain his own agenda, mr. romney left an opening for democrats and mr. obama to define it instead. we wouldn't be surprised to see him go away from personal attacks on romney and spend all time assailing the policy. you just gave more detail and i

think the "wall street journal" will be happy about had mitt romney dhaun on thursday night. >> you know, mitt romney is not going to expend -- to get into a debate over gross domestic product and gdp to debt ratios during a 25-minute speech at the convention, i mean, if you simply say, listen, we're going to do something real simple. we're nort going to spend more money than we take in. we're going to actually do something about the out of control deficits and debts in this country and, yes, there has been plenty of blame to go around. i mean, i don't think anything -- is shying afrom that. >> it's interesting that mitt romney was more aggressive yesterday in taking his own party to task than he had been earlier. is that a smart strategy? >> i think it's reasonable. i think that at the end of the day what's going to win this election is the person who is real and authentic and genuine among facing america and who's actually going to be seen as the guy that's going to go and do something? if you want four more years of a miserable sputtering economy under barack obama, then you

have your guy. i mean, the fact is, barack obama's got a tough sell this week. he's going to have to tell the american people that we're on the right track, and that everything's going to be great. it takes a long time to have change. this isn't the days of fdr, where you get four terms at president. he didn't fulfill the mission. he didn't do what he said he was going to do and, therefore, he's got to be fired. >> you're seeing this as if, if you couldn't get it done until 3 1/2 years? >> i'm going to hold the president to his own words. that's the problem. when you talk all the time you end up putting a lot of material out there and the president's got a lot of it. >> all right. reince priebus, of the rnc. we'll see you all week. >> beloved by the attendees here at charlotte. >> thalt be nice to you. >> reince priebus. a lot more ahead. back to basics, how the obama campaign is working to repeat their 2008 victory here in north carolina. at least trying. plus, the early bird catches

the worm. an early and supersized edition of our political panel. a little 2016 watch. you're wrauching a special edition of "the daily rundown," live from charlotte, north carolina. we'll be right back. we're sitting on a bunch of shale gas. there's natural gas under my town. it's a game changer. ♪ it means cleaner, cheaper american-made energy. but we've got to be careful how we get it. design the wells to be safe. thousands of jobs. use the most advanced technology to protect our water. billions in the economy. at chevron, if we can't do it right, we won't do it at all. we've got to think long term. we've got to think long term. ♪ the blissful pause just before that rich sweetness touches your lips. the delightful discovery, the mid-sweetening realization that you have the house all to yourself. well, almost.

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what i'm having at the restaurant. i lost 73 pounds with weight watchers online. i don't think i've ever smiled this much in my whole life. it kind of hurts my cheeks. [ female announcer ] join for free. offer ends october 20th. weight watchers online finally, losing weight clicks. four queer it's ago barack obama won the state of north carol carl by a little more than 14,000 votes. a lot has happened to the president's base there since then. so much that re-creating the magic here in the tar heel state going to be more of an uphill slog this time around. we have this report on north carolina. >> reporter: at this barber shop in downtown charlotte, summer was different four years ago. >> crazy. >> reporter: dominick dukes remember the steady stream of eager campaign volunteers who stopped by the shop to register new voters. >> everyone was obama. >> reporter: nearby, at unc

charlotte, a 21-year-old grad student recalls being captivated. >> unified people. >> thank you, north carolina! >> reporter: young people and black voters were the bedrocks of president obama's support in the tar heel state. he snagged 95% of the black vote and 74% of voters under 30. but this time, many of them are unenthusiastics and frustrating. >> not able to stand up for what we're pushing for. >> he hasn't communicated well to the country. >> scary, graduated from college, there's not many jobs. >> reporter: that may be the biggest wrench in the obama machine. the state's own unemployment rate. 9.6% in july. well above the national average and the fifth highest in america. bombarded with ads and web videos like this one, tying the president to be jotlessness. mitt romney and the group

supports him put $13.3 million into ads in north carolina. obama and his group, $22 million. >> the republicans have the advantage in the air war. >> reporter: as those who coverd politics here for nearly four decades pointed out, team obama's ground game is legendary. >> they never left the state after the campaign and have been heavily organizing the last year and the republicans are only now beginning to organize. >> reporter: more than 40 campaign offices like this one in raleigh. mitt romney's campaign has 19 like this one in charlotte. they opened in may. >> we're going to continue to take our message to the voters. we're not in a conquest of who can open the most offices or anything like that. >> reporter: getting ads and apathy. among the president's base, enough to close the narrowest of gaps. in north carolina, for nbc news. when the democratic national defense starts tuesday, it will be the first time the president has visit the north carolina, ready for this, since april.

taking a look at african-american vote here in north carolina and why some say it may not be as reliable as it was four years ago. well, the president will be surrounded by some of his biggest political fans this week. a few national head winds outside of the arena here in charlotte. a first term fillaled with ups and downs hasn't deterred the president. the hope and change that he promised may not seem fulfilled to some undecided voters. bring in the panel. steve core knacky, co-oeft of msnbc "the vicycle" and from th center for american progress. beth, political reporter for the associated press and michael shear, white house correspondent for "time" magazine. welcome all of you. by the way, beth, i want to start with north carolina quickly. there's a poll in the "charlotte observer" note it, it has mitt romney up four points, 47-43. it does seem to me as if democrats know they're behind in north carolina but they don't necessarily count on it as part

of their path? >> well, it's probably, you know, pretty obvious that north carolina would be the toughest of the swing states for the president to hold on to. the campaign has known that for quite some time, but your package referred to the amazing ground game they've got going on there. the obama campaign does, ground game, does organizing better than any campaign bet are and they've got an amazing operation here and a ton of advertising goinging on. the democrats are advertising as heavily or more so than the republicans since the spring. there's a number of democrat whose think it can stay and play. >> and what charlotte is to north carolina is what denver was to colorado. they think they can use that as an organizing tool in the state, the convention itself? >> talk to the campaign officials, they already point to north carolina as their most successful voter registration up to date. that's before we go to the bank of america stadium, if we ever get there. you know, they're going to be able to get however many more thousands of people to register to vote. historically, north carolina has

not been a swing state. not a state well tapped into in 2008. so the theory of the case, i'm not sure even the obama campaign and their most candid moments believe it anymore, the theory, can change the electorate here. >> steve, bigger picture. there's seems to be a ton of thumb suckers over the weekend. everybody did their preparation pieces for the democratic convention and they all have the same thing. the president's got to somehow fire up its base, not as enthusiastic. how does he answer, are you better off? question all of this. a lot of hand wringing. how does he cut through that and put on a happy face? >> it's not possible toll recapture what you have in '08. can't have economic this high and ever re-create when you were the outsider running against a broken system. the key for obama and the key out of this week is context, because what struck me this week, romney's acceptance speech last week was, this is a guy, talking about it in your last

segment. his campaign decided they want to be the generic alternative and relying on what got jimmy carter off, george bush off, vote the incumbent out. this is mnot an inspiring thing necessarily, he wants to create, there's failure in a president, disappoint but haven't given up and the alternative may be worse. that's what this week will be about, i think. >> what about yesterday, the obama campaign officials weren't as prepared to answer the are you better off question? and this morning, stephanie cutter was just going to say, no, no, no, no. yes. equivocation. >> i'm not going to disagree with stephanie. >> clearly they realized yesterday it didn't play so hot. >> the answer tos that question is, yes, we are. are we losing 700,000 job as month, when the president took office?

we're not. >> what abouted -- >> i can't answer that, chuck. all i can say is that i think that the president will be the first to admit the economy is not where we want it to be, but you can't look at economic indicators going on in january in 2009 and where we are now with what the 27 straight months of private sector job growth and say we're not on the right trajectory. >> beth, seems the obama campaign is nervous about looking, they don't want to the cheerlead. right jt they've been careful. when they all came out and sounded like debbie downer yesterday. right? >> a little weird to have one of your main surrogate, governor o'malley flatly say, no, when the question is, are you better off? what you're describing, it's a problem. the threading of the needle. saying, we're better off. no, if you don't have a job, under employed, the job you got is different than the job you had, paying one-third less, you don't feel things are any better. you can't tell people who aren't feeling good they should feel better and can't be debbie downer and ask people to -- >> it's the reason the obama

campaign's motto is forward. they don't want to talk about the past. they lose their way on that question. >> when we come back, talking more about what romney is up to and interesting, the back seat driving on his speech on thursday. still to come, north carolina democrat senator kay hagan will be here plus our supersized panel sticking around. talking about one of the other big convention questions. what's bill clinton going to say on wednesday? check out "the daily rundown" facebook page. behind the scenes of our show in charlotte, at the epicenter, it's very msnbc heavy. come on down. we'll be right back. al a survianiner

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well, the obama campaign sees former president bill clinton as political asset. turn on the television you see that ad with him. also he's going to have a

primetime speaking slot this wednesday at the convention, but any buzz over the boost president clinton can give the convention is matched by what i think are rid outside stories right now about the relationship with these two men and the foe dra drama. whether the former commander in chief is free lance in front of our political panel. steve kornacki. the idea that the obama campaign and frankly bill clinton would be off message on wednesday night with each other seems to be really naive. it's in both of their best interests to get this right. >> no. it absolutely is. especially now. compared to four years ago coming off that heated primary. maybe hurt feelings and everything, but clinton, that the republicans made him a central player in her attacks. holding up clinton as the good democrat, comparing obama against. clinton looks at the welfare attacks using now and wants to defend that record and the other thing, soon as this election is

over talking 2016, and hillary clinton is a prospect. >> you brought up 2016. what i get to do. live pictures we're going to show you. this will be a trivia question some day. who was the first potential 2016 candidate to address the iowa delegation breakfast, of course that happens every day this week? the answer is newark mayor cory booker, michael shear, heard it here first, booker, wins a senate seat, somehow beats chris christie, automatically, it's clear, national ambitions. i don't think it's an accident he accepted the invitation of the iowans to have breakfast. >> look at the democrats 2016. hillary clinton, who's just -- >> looming large. that's right. >> and a back bench that is relatively small and no real stars. i don't think -- cory booker is not yet on that stage to go to iowa and clean up the caucus. interesting. it clinton gets out or whatever happens over the next years --

>> a feeding frenzy. >> becomes very much like the republicans were this year. looking for their candidate, and it may happen that no one emerges until -- >> at the conventions where there are re-elections, beth, at the re-election convention who goes to north carolina to address, always becomes fuzzy, never an accident. ryan sweitzer is coming up. somebody thinking about it. addresses iowa i think on thursday. always a subtext of these conventions? >> of course. governor o'malley is here, clearly interested in 2016. my home state governor, andrew cuomo, who's not here focusing on new york. another big elephant in the room. how about joe biden? what are his prospects in the 2016? does anybody think he's not thinking about it. >> he's thinking about it. >> funny about joe biden. i feel as if his presence now in the campaign is, that the campaign, the obama campaign, are they trying to mute it a little bit? >> i don't think that's the

case. i think it's the story the media love. there goes joe biden doing whatever, doing a gaffe. >> it makes the campaign, well, we're not going to put him out for interviewers? be more careful? >> i don't think that's the case. vice president biden connects with people on a very bill level. you see him talking to regular voters, there's an energy that's in the room. i think the campaign, you'll see him going out. in pennsylvania, ohio. i don't think they're going to back way from that. >> micromanager too much? >> no. i think, overall more of an asset than people thought in the beginning. >> yeah. >> i agree. >> there have been the gaffes, i think he gets the message over well. if biden runs in 2016, he'll be a gap of 28 years. first presidential campaign. 2008, 2016. has anyone else in american history ever had a bigger gap than that? >> i can think of one. maybe jerry brown or -- what's the minnesota senator that ran every year? >> stassen.

>> yeah. >> henry clay in the 19th century. the only one i can -- >> wow. >> like an honor -- honor trivia. >> we have to leave it there. thank you all. are you guys on today? >> 3:00. >> you are on today. >> yes. >> most of us are working labor day. just a few shows are not. hmm. trivia time we asked, there are many cities in the united states that go by the nickname, they claim to be the queen city. what is the only queen city in the united states that actually was named for a queen? the answer -- over here. it is this one. charlotte, north carolina. the city is named for the british queen charlotte. the wife of jing george iii, king when america gained its independence. another trivia question in the next hour. if you have one to use on the show, e-mail us at dailyrundown@msnbc.com. we'll be right back.

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well, it's not surprising, the president may have a soft spot for north carolina after all. here he won over john mccain. the first time the state back add democratic president since jimmy carter in '76. has the luster worn off? by january 2010 the state's jobless rate peaked, remains at 9.6% and in 2010, helping republicans seize control of the state legislature for the first time in 140 years. with me now, north carolina democratic senator kay hagan, one of the convention speakers, unofficial host of the convention and elected by president obama on this wave of democratic winds here in the state. thank you for having us here. >> welcome to north carolina, chuck. we love having you here. >> let me start with sort of the

state of political play in north carolina. it's clearly not in the best of shape for the democrats now than it was four years ago. is it all because of the economy? >> if you look at 2008, we had close to 4.5 million people come out to vote. in 2010, a million and a half of those stayed home. there's where you saw a lot of the drop-off. >> why did they stay home? disappointment? i mean, that was a big rally here for the republicans. was it not? >> 2010, i think a lot of people just didn't -- won the president's election and stayed home. you will see a huge difference this year in 2012. the president has energized the roots. we've got offices opened up in 40 different counties across north carolina. thousands it of people stood in line to get credentials for the thursday evening speech. >> fill the stadium? >> i am certainly looking forward to it. >> do you think you're fill the stadium with north carolina democrats? >> i think we will. >> why is the economy more sluggish here? i think about virginia, below

the national average. one state down. you guys above the national average. why? unemployment? >> look back to what happened way before this recession. so many of our manufacturing jobs went overseas. look at our textile company, furniture companies can, tobacco company, hit so hard way before this recession, and those are the kinds of jobs that it's been very hard to have new industry come in. but we're turning it around. we've got incredible community colleges. we have the best public university system in the country, and i think people need to be focused on the fact that we've got to continue retraining. >> can you replace the textile manufacturing industry here? can it be resurrected or is it never going to about what it once was? there has to be other places to create jobs here in north carolina? >> look at the biotech sector, advanced manufacturing is where the new jobs are. that's what we are training for right now and it's going to take a lot of math skills that we've got to be teaching in our public school systems right now.

advanced manufacturing. the high-tech industries, that's where north carolina is focused. >> why do you think the romney campaign is so bullish at winning north carolina? of all the battleground states, nine in the toss-up category, why are republicans so confident in inwering north carolina even if they don't beat the president? >> i think they looked at the 2010 number, but i think we will see a much larger voter turnout because people saw what happened in 2010. that's why we've got a lot of the, the offices already opened up. a lot of canvassing going on, phone calls telling people how important it is to vote. voter turnout is the key. >> how damaging was the scandal inside the north carolina democratic party, this issue, sexual harassment and, how much did that hurt your organizing efforts here? >> that's beside the point. i think people are -- not focused on that. we are able to look ahead and move on. nobody's talking about that. >> the party is settled or is this a case where the campaign is doing it on the other side of

the -- yeah. i think north carolina, the democrats are looking at getting out vote in 2012, because that's what's going to make the difference. it's going to be a tight election, and that's the why every vote counts and why you see so much of the republican party nationally trying to suppress voter turnout. >> a few north carolina democratic incumbents running away from the president. larry kissel is one of them. the convention being here, should he be running as far away from the president as he is? >> i'm going to let larry kissel respond to that, but i think people -- one, they know their districts. they know who their people are. they want to be sure that they get out to vote and i think that's what's they're concentrating on. >> you think it's an okay strategy? here you're hosting the national convention yet all of the washington democrats aren't necessarily united behind the president being here? >> i think if you look at pat mccormick, he didn't go to tampa. >> fair enough.

senator, thanks for coming up. >> thanks. our "daily rundown" super show keeps on rolling. another hour coming up. montana governor brian sweitzer and a lot more. we'll be back live from the democratic national convention. sort of the pre-convention here in north carolina. a big party happening here later today. senator haggan, you going to be at it? all right. [ male announcer ] now's the perfect time to buy an adjustable version of the most highly recommended bed in america. the tempur-pedic ergo system. treat yourself to the ultimate sleep experience and save up to $400 during the tempur ergo savings event. plus visit tempurpedic.com for full details on our 0% apr financing with up to five years to pay. don't wait. the tempur ergo savings event ends october 14th. and five-year special financing ends september 5th. visit tempurpedic.com now. tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america.

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on to north carolina. are you better now than four years ago is the republicans' attack. a counterconvention right here in charlotte. something that hurricane ikz hampered democrats from doing last week. and map making. which state the romney is